Z: The Beginning of Everything Star Christina Ricci on What Modern Women Can Learn From Zelda Fitzgerald

She's been starring in films since the age of 10, yet it's a new role for television that's at the heart of Christina Ricci's latest passion project. As Zelda Fitzgerald in the Amazon series Z: The Beginning of Everything, Ricci transforms into the ultimate jazz-age it girl and muse to the great American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, played by David Hoflin. But she's not only playing the character at the center of this story — Ricci is also a producer and the driving force behind the making of the series.

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Z, which focuses on Zelda's life in Montgomery, Alabama and the early years of her married life in New York, premieres on January 27. We sat down with Ricci to learn about the challenges she faced on set, what she thinks of Zelda's outrageous life, and what women today can learn from her storied past.

Nicole Rivelli/ Amazon Prime Video

What enticed you to be part of this project?

This show is based on a book by Therese Fowler called Z: A Zelda Fitzgerald Novel which is a fictionalized first-person account of Zelda's marriage and her life with F. Scott Fitzgerald. It based on letters between the two of them. And I read this book — I remember reading it on the treadmill, a lot, when I was out of work — and I called my manager because I wanted to find out who had the option to the book and to let them know I would love to audition whenever they got around to making it.

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My manager called me back and said the agent for the book hadn't given the option but there were a few people interested and they were going to let everybody take it out and whoever got it going first would get the option.

And you knew you wanted to play Zelda?

It's a fantastic part. It's such a good part for an actress. There are a lot of really interesting, complex women but not all of them led as glamorous a life as Zelda. So you get everything.

I was fascinated, too. I read the book and I thought Oh, maybe they already made a movie out of her life already. At least there has to be a BBC miniseries from the '80s, something! But no. Nobody's done anything that's just about her.

Richard Foreman/Amazon Prime Video

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What were some of the challenges of putting together this period piece?

It was very difficult from a production standpoint. Because it's a series, each episode has a more limited budget than if you were to make a movie in this period. The writer's write the episodes and then we would go through and say, 'Well there's no way we can make Times Square look like Times Square back then. We can't afford that. So this has to take place somewhere else.' Or, 'This episode can't have any many scenes outside because we don't have the budget to make snow.' So, it does affect the storytelling in a lot of ways.

For us, in some ways, these restrictions were helpful. When you have 28 minutes of drama, sometimes, condensing things and streamlining things is better for the story.

How long did you spend in hair and makeup every day?

Two hours. That's why I always have a two hour pre-call.

I loved all the clothes … and I love makeup! That's my thing. Clothes and makeup. And my makeup artist I've known for a very long time, we were on Pan Am together and we had so much fun. So in this series we were super excited just to try all the different looks. It's really interesting because, in terms of makeup, they accentuated very different features at that time than we do now. So it's kind of fascinating once you start playing around.

Who do you think Zelda would be today if she were alive?

I think she probably would have been a Madonna-esque pop icon. I think she would have been what she was in the '20s but being that now would have afforded her a lot more liberty.

Nicole Rivelli/ Amazon Prime Video

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How do modern audiences, particularly women, view Zelda differently compared to the way her contemporaries did?

That was something that we thought about, too, in the story. The things that were unspoken at that time that were her restrictions, we had to actually make sure those were verbalized. Because as a modern woman watching the show you would say, 'Well just leave! Why the hell would you stay with this person who just did that?' So we had to think about how to get the women of today to stay with us in the story.

It was such a different time in terms of women getting trapped in certain situations. Zelda had a very good friend from school and both were considered to be equally intelligent and they both wrote. They were both considered beauties as well and very popular in Montgomery. The friend went to college, and Zelda decided to coast on her beauty and get there on a husband.

And that was the biggest mistake Zelda made. Her laziness and her arrogance really bit her in the ass. If she had just been willing to buckle down and do some hard work she could have had a lot more freedom. Her success would have been based on her own merit.

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Zelda's laziness and her arrogance really bit her in the ass. If she had just been willing to buckle down and do some hard work she could have had a lot more freedom.

Why is it important to be telling Zelda's story now?

Women need to be reminded why it's important that we stand up for women's issues. And it's easy to take for granted where we are and not realize that if we don't keep our minds focused and our eyes on the prize that it's going to go away. And considering how you weren't "allowed" to vote for Hillary Clinton just because she was a woman. Why not? Why couldn't it just be that I want to see a female president because I want my child to think there is no difference between men and women and what they can achieve?

So I think it's important to show stories like this to remind women of where we come from. And that people really struggled for where we are.

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